WIREDU AND ANOTHER v. MIM TIMBER CO., LTD.

JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.S.C.

The plaintiffs are holders of a concession known as the Amama North Timber Concession under a concession lease dated the 11th December, 1957, validated on the 8th March, 1960; the certificate of validity in respect of the same is registered as No. 589/1960 in the Deeds Registry. The said concession was granted to the plaintiffs jointly by the stools of Susuanso and Nkwanta. The defendant entered upon portion of the land subject of the said concession, felled timber thereon and exercised other acts of possession thereon; he did so under and by virtue of timber felling rights granted to him on the 17th June, 1959, jointly by three stools, namely, the Contrajesu (Abesim) stool (the co-defendant's stool), the Susuanso stool and the Nkwanta stool.

The area over which the rights were granted was the subject-matter of litigation in a transferred suit No. 6/54 in the Land Court, between the Abesim stool on the one hand and Susuanso and Nkwanta stools on the other. The said suit was started in 1953 and is still pending. The Land Court, on the 27th February, 1954 made an order for interim injunction restraining all the parties thereto from dealing with the land, during the pendency of the suit; but on the 11th May, 1959, the said court, by further order, permitted the parties jointly to grant to the defendant, the aforesaid felling rights. In pursuance of the rights given him under the said agreement of the 17th June, 1959, the defendant occupied the area of the concession, blocked all access to it against the plaintiffs, and felled and carried away large quantity of timber.

The plaintiffs thereupon sued him and claimed an order for injunction, and damages—special and general—for trespass. The co-defendant was joined upon his application. Both the defendant and the co-defendant counter-claimed for a declaration that the plaintiff's lease dated the 11th December, 1957, is void and of no effect on the grounds that it is a concession obtained by fraud, and consequently the order validating it and the certificate of validity are each null and void.

JUDGMENT OF CRABBE J.

Crabbe J. (as he then was), after an exhaustive discussion of the facts and the law applicable, gave judgment for the plaintiffs, granted their claim for an injunction and awarded them £G2,000; he dismissed the counterclaim of the defendant and the co-defendant. Against that decision the defendant appealed to this court. The co-defendant did not appeal.

The defendant orig